Ben Zank: The Surreal Nature

The "Alterego" Series

A young New Yorker born in 1991, Ben Zank picked up a Pentax film camera at his grandma’s attic when he was 18 and started shooting photographs. Ben seems no different from any other twenty-something guys and also confesses his occasional weakness for video game addiction and procrastination. Currently he is living far, far away from home in New Zealand, where the vast emptiness nature that is drastically different from his home environment constantly serves as his juice of inspiration.

The minimalistic spontaneity in his photographs surprisingly capture some very sensitive and tangible emotions, that resonates from the surreal setting and composition in the vast wilderness. It is almost like watching a Quebecois film, where rolls and rolls of void flow in and makes the ambiance almost uncomfortably awkward, but forces one to think deeper into the character’s position.

The images represent an ongoing experience of emotions that I feel, the most recent being isolation and a longing to connect with another human being.